Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-10-21
UNEASlNESS in LONDON.
TradeSnen Apprehensive that Their
Shops VIII Be Looted This Winter.
Many Thousands of Thieves Fementinr
: Observation-Disclosures Bread or
Blood Demonstration.

The unemployed people who nightly
make sleeping quarters of Trafalgar
square at London formed again in rag
ged procession and marched to the Man
sion house, demanding to see the mayor
Lord Mayor Sir Reginald hanson declin-
ed to be interviewed by the mob. After
insisting upon their demands and de-
nouncing the mayor, the rabble returned
and proceeded to the Office of the Stan
dard, whoss editors they hooted and
ieered. The police attempted to COM
pei the mob to move on, but they resist
ed whereupon the police charged upoa
them and seized the black banner and
red flags which they carried. The crowd
then being routed, dispersed.
The mob afterward rallied, their leaders
shouting to the men to assert their rights
and brave the police. They gathered in
new strength and rushed in upon the
police, bearing back the latter and re-
capturing their black banner. The po-
lice again charged them, and the mob
ran from their batons.
The anxiety of the London tradesmen
at the mischievous attitude and bold
threats of the dangerous classes as win
ter approaches Is undisguised. The po-
lice declare themselves abundantly able
~ e>uA "AeiA SNSi9 lAdb
may be made, but the slowness with
which they have acted in previous in
stances, when predatory forays have
been made by thlevish crowds, has hat
urally lessened the confidence of the
tradesmen and citizens generally in the
ability of the guardians of the peace TO
prevent such a sharp and sudden raid on
their property as they fear may be made
under circumstances which may arise
favorable to the propling gangs ever on
the alert to profit by any opportunity
that may present itself. Tradesmen have
not forgotten the plundering of shops
and showwindows last year, when thous-
ands of pounds worth of portable and
fragile gooda were stolen or destroyed
before the police could check the thieves
or ruffians who seemed to delight in
running what they could not steal.
The poor, spiritless objects who sleep
in Trafalgar square and have invaded
the parks of late in such numbers that
persons at all fastidious feel like aban-
doning those resorts altogether, may be-
come formidable when associated in
great numbers and egged on by the
shrewd and desperate thieves, who we'll
know how to use the crowd of vagrants
as cloak to their dangerous enter prises.
The cold weather will soon serve as an
excuse for very large addition to the
already numerous procession of pinched
and hungry looking men carrying ban
ners inscribed with demands for work or
bread, though the carriers are really de-
cidedly Indifferent about either, and the
shop-keepers, troubles will begin in ear
nest. Many of these have purchased
arms for themselves and their employees,
and the display, if not the use, of these
weapons will serve to protect their pro-
perty, for the London mobsman has an
intense dread of cold iron and lead.
The estimate of the police is that ther
are 10000 thieves in London, of whom
thay credit 5000 to the weaker sex. The
male portion of this army of habitual
criminals may always be counted upon
to supplement any crowd that may fill
the streets to such a degree as to reader
the police temporarily helpless, and they
are clever enough to secure their booty
and vanish by the time the officers begin
to club away the more innocent obstruc-
tors of the highway. To the through
cockney the Irish question and Russia's
occasional menaces to the Indian govern
ment seems as nothing to the visible
dangers of the London mob.